“He’s doubtful going into the game,” Carroll said. “We’ll see what happens on game day. We’ll take it all the way up to that. He has not been able to get in as much work as we would have hoped.”

The news is much better on defensive end Cliff Avril, who is expected to play after missing the last game with a hamstring injury.

“Cliff looks good, he had a great week,” Carroll said. “He’s ready to go.

“He’s full speed now. We just needed to see him—last week he practiced and he could have played last week, now he comes back and puts another week behind him, and went all the reps and did full-speed work, so we know he’s ready to go.”

Carroll would not commit to Avril starting, however.

Defensive end Chris Clemons practiced all week, and is officially listed as questionable, but Carroll also talked about Clemons getting back, in “the next couple of weeks,” so it’s hard to imagine him playing after just one week of practice.

“Chris had a great week,” Carroll said. “We were just thrilled. Wednesday was day you could kind of see him knocking off the rust, Thursday he was good, and Friday again he was good, so he’s going to have real chance the next couple of weeks to get back and play for us. He’s really pushing us in that regard, as you would think, but we’re really thrilled that he’s back this soon.”

Starting DTs Tony McDaniel and Brandon Mebane, who each missed a day of practice, will be ready to go, Carroll said.